Contents | August 2014

cover

Highway to Hell

The debate over transit funding is freighted with any number of conflicts: city dwellers versus rural folk; truckers versus commuters; fiscal conservatives versus liberals. But how about if getting people out of their cars and into public transit in Vancouver helps grow the economy in places like Kelowna and Kitimat? What if everything we've assumed about transit being a "big city issue" is wrong?

by Frances Bula

features

My Big Idea

From airport CEOs to high-tech entrepreneurs to financiers: seven B.C. Business leaders share the animating notion that is driving their organizations success today

by Petti Fong

One of a Kind

Looking for rare loose-leaf tea? How about a mother-of-pearl button? And where can you get that fancy Swedish vacuum serviced? And the $3,000 pen: where do you find a replacement nib? Four Vancouver specialty retailers that are thriving in an age of generalists.

photos by Brian Howell / text by Jessica Werb

Frontlines

TOURISMA Conventional Courtship

Whistler isn't just a pretty face: increasingly it's the site of some high-powered conferences, including this month's Grow confab. How our scenic little resort town became the hot new place to do business.

by Jacob Parry

FINANCEFiona MacFarlane

Fiona MacFarlane, as managing partner and chief inclusiveness officer for Ernst & Young (EY) and a mother of two, knows a thing or three about work/life balance. But sadly, her climb to the top as a high-ranking woman executive is more exception than rule

by David Jordan

MARKETINGCase Study: Bard on the Beach

A few years back, Vancouver's Bard on the Beach festival did some market research to figure out why certain patrons were not returning as paying subscribers. The answer might surprise you (it did them).

by Mario Canseco

Intel

HUMAN RESOURCES There's no such thing as stress leave. (There, we said it.) But there is such a thing as sick leave, and if you're a smart employer, you'll know how to deal with the stressed-to-mental-breaking-point employee before you have a lawsuit on your hands.

VISUAL LEARNING How to create a vision for your company. Hint: start with a couple of old guys, add in a few buzzwords, create a vision board...